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Saturday, July 2, 2011

200 miles in 20 days

It's Day 2 of my plan to run 200 miles in 20 days as part of my training for New York Marathon in November. My objective is to do this challenging for me mileage and stay injury free.

Why do you want to do it?
To make a progress from being able to run 13.1 miles at 6:27 min today to 26.2 miles at 6:20 min in November I need to increase mileage of my training before my trip to Europe on July 21. After coming back home from my vacation I will decrease mileage and focus solely on speed work.

Date

Training Type

2.5 weeks: July 1 – July 20

Foundation – to improve aerobic fitness

2.5 weeks: July 21 – August 10

Vacation in Europe – to enjoy time-off

9 weeks: August 11 – October 9

Sharpening –to improve speed

3 weeks: October 10 – October 30

Tapering – to get ready for a race

1 week: Race on November 6

New York Marathon – to run at 6:20 min/mile pace

How can you do it?

Well, I will apply several rules that should keep me safe:

Rule 1: Increase mileage or speed, but not both at the same time. Yes, I learned that lesson the hard way. This time I'm increasing the mileage only. Speed training will be done after my return from Europe.

Rule 2:Run every other day. A day of running will be followed by a day off or cross training to speed up muscle recovery process. In case or scheduling conflict, the afternoon run will be done the next day in the morning.

Rule 3: Do "doubles". Daily mileage will be broken up into two running sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. So called “double “ allows runners to safely increase mileage by following this formula: Let’s say you plan to run 10 miles on a given day. Instead of one running session, you could run 70% in the morning and 50% in the afternoon. So you would run 7 miles in the morning and 5 miles in the afternoon, giving you 12 miles instead of planned 10 miles. In my case, daily 20-mile runs will be broken up into 12 miles in the morning and 8 miles in the afternoon.

Rule 4:Run and walk. Take a break every 30 minutes and walk for one minute. This short break allows the muscle to rest and will delay muscle fatigue that can lead to injury.

Rule 5: Warm-up. Run the first 10 minutes very slowly to warm-up. After 10 to 15 minutes, our body knows that we’re serious about the exercise and would switch from burning glycogen (in short supply) to burning fat (plenty :-) thus reducing the feeling of tiredness and lack of energy after the run.

Rule 6: Mix Fast and Easy pace. My morning run will be at Fast Pace followed by an afternoon run at Easy Pace (see definitions below the table).

Rule 7:Stretch. Stretch for at least 15 minutes after each run.

Training Plan

By following these rules, my training schedule can be compiled and looks like this:

July

Day

AM

PM

Total Miles

1.

Friday

10@EZ

OFF

10

2.

Saturday

10@FT

OFF

10

3.

Sunday

10@EZ (Alma RR)

10@FT

20

4.

Monday

OFF

OFF

0

5.

Tuesday

12@FT

8@EZ (Trails)

20

6.

Wednesday

OFF

XT

0

7.

Thursday

12@FT

OFF (Appt)

12

8.

Friday

8@EZ

OFF

8

9.

Saturday

XT

OFF

0

10.

Sunday

10@EZ (Alma RR)

10@FT

20

11.

Monday

OFF

OFF

0

12.

Tuesday

12@FT

8@EZ

20

13.

Wednesday

OFF

XT

0

14.

Thursday

12@FT

8@EZ

20

15.

Friday

OFF

5@EZ

5

16.

Saturday

XT

5@FT

5

17.

Sunday

10@EZ (Alma RR)

10@FT

20

18.

Monday

OFF

OFF

0

19.

Tuesday

12@FT

8@EZ

20

20.

Wednesday

10@FT

OFF

10

TRAVEL

Total Miles

200

Legend

MP – Marathon Pace, 6:20 min/mile (3:35 min/km)

EZ – Easy Pace is a MP + 2 minutes, 8:20 min/ mile (4:33 min/km)

FT – Fast Pace is MP + 1 minute, 7:20 min/mile (5:10 min/km)

XT – Cross Training

10 @ FT means: 10 miles at 7:20 min/mile pace

15 @ EZ means: 15 miles at 8:20 min/mile pace

Conclusion

By following these rules I hope to to safely increase my mileage and stay injury free. Maybe you can try "doubles" as well as part of your training?

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About Me

Running on Sunday morning has been a part of my weekly routine since 1997 when two of my friends and I went for a run (walk) around the Stanley Park in Vancouver on a cold, rainy day in October. Came home exhausted, soaked, starving, but somewhat happy. I was hooked. My first two full-marathons in 2003 and 2005 didn't go well. I have followed a more rigorous training program since and did much better finishing Vancouver and Portland in 2009, Boston and Chicago in 2010, Eugene and New York in 2011, Berlin in 2012, Ottawa and Toronto in 2013, Ottawa and Washington in 2014. My favorite run is a 5K "commute-to-work" run along the canal here in Ottawa . Hope some of my posts on this blog will help other runners stay injury free, train better and run faster.
Run Strong!
Jacek Gorwa, RPB Editor